This blog will host viewpoints by the editor on various topics, as well as information for the Farwell-Hoffman-Kensington-Donnelly-Herman-Norcross, Minnesota area residents and families, and anyone else on the world-wide web who has an interest in the success and growth of the west central Minnesota area. Farwell, Kensington, Hoffman, Donnelly, Herman, and Norcross are west central Minnesota towns located between the larger towns of Alexandria, Glenwood, Morris, and Elbow Lake.

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

This was a letter to the editor published in the Hoffman Tribune on February 2, 2006

February 2, 2006 - Letter to the Editor

It’s not an overstatement to say that the very quality of our students’ education is at stake. A “no” vote means that we, as a community, are not willing to provide the funding necessary to maintain a quality educational experience for our students.

A “no” vote will greatly diminish the educational opportunities that we provide to non-college bound students. The elective courses in shop, home economics, and agriculture would be greatly reduced if not eliminated entirely. The business courses, such as accounting, statistics, and business math would be eliminated.

A “no” vote would also hinder any attempts at increasing our quality of course offerings for our college-bound students.

A “no” vote will result in dramatically increased class sizes in the elementary, decreased services to the most vulnerable students, and teachers being returned to the classroom that have been out of the classroom for several years.

In addition to the already announced cuts that will result from a “no” vote, the school board will have to cut an additional $200,000 from the budget. These additional cuts could easily result in activity fees of $500 to $1500 per student per sport and/or further reductions in teaching/ counseling staff. These changes would likely result in significant numbers of students open-enrolling out of our district. Since the money follows the students, we could be caught in a vicious cycle as we make cuts to offset the lost revenue, causing even more students to leave the district.

With a “no” vote, the best we could hope for is a mediocre education.

But it doesn’t have to be this way. A “yes” vote will go a long way toward allowing us to maintain our educational quality. The future of our school district is in your hands.